Maryland Basketball honors legend who broke ACC color barrier
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In honor of Juneteenth, the Maryland Men's Basketball program is honoring Billy Jones, who became the first black player to play in the ACC conference back in 1965. He was a three-year letterman for the Terrapins and played two seasons alongside legendary Maryland head coach Gary Williams.
On this #Juneteenth, we honor Billy Jones.
— Maryland Men’s Basketball (@TerrapinHoops) June 19, 2025
He was the first black player to earn a scholarship in the ACC.
In 1965, he broke the ACC color barrier in game at Penn State.
The Terps walked out of establishments that refused Jones service.
He is a trailblazer and a hero.
Read… pic.twitter.com/0DEt1LKgNs
In an article published by UMTerps.com in 2021, Jones described what it was like trying to break the barrier at that time in the ACC.
“There was opposition,” Jones said. “I will not say [they accepted me with] open arms because when you’re talking about basketball, I could deal with the basketball side of it. I've had people hate me because I had the Towson [High School] uniform on all my life, so that was to be understood. But you're not involved with various things and you have second class citizenship and that was to be expected, at that point in time that's the way things were. So there was some opposition but that's what I wanted to do and actually it was no different than what I experienced in high school, so it wasn't like a new experience.”
A Maryland native, Jones spent his high school days about 45 minutes away from Maryland's campus at Towson High School. Not only did many of his classmates go on to enroll at the University of Maryland, but Jones actually had the opportunity to compete for a high school state championship on Maryland's campus. Although Jones would ultimately receive offers to play for other programs, the familiarity and comfort with Maryland was too strong to pass on.
“I liked the place and most of the kids from my high school were going there,” Jones said. “My other options were Temple, Michigan and a couple other schools, but this just seemed like the right place to go.”
And while playing for Maryland was something he wanted to do, Jones said that he never would have been able to do it without receiving a scholarship. Upon receiving the scholarship from Maryland, Jones became the first person in his immediate family to attend college, something Jones said meant everything to him.
“I could not have gone to college without the basketball scholarship,” Jones said. “That was my vehicle and it meant everything. It may have meant more to my mother and my community than me, I mean they were elated.”
You can read more about Jones and his incredible story on UMTerps.com.
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Christopher Breiler launched Winged Helmet Media and began covering the Michigan Football program in an unofficial capacity in 2017. He then joined Wolverine Digest as part of the FanNation network in 2021 as a contributing writer, where he served as both a writer and a photographer on game days. In 2024, he took over as the Managing Editor for Michigan Wolverines On SI. In January of 2025, he took over as Publisher for Maryland On SI. His love for Michigan Football brought him into the industry, and his passion for being a content creator has led to some amazing experiences along the way.
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